A “vividly rendered” (Booklist) masterful novel that brilliantly “meshes local politics, college basketball, and the South” (Dave White, author of An Empty Hell).

Summer, 1994. Dean Goodnight, the first Choctaw Indian employed by the Oklahoma County public defender's office, pulls a new case--the brutal murder of a once-promising basketball star. The only witness is Caleb, the five-year-old son of the prime suspect, Billy. Investigating the murder, Dean draws four strangers into Billy's orbit, each of whom becomes deeply invested in the suspect’s fate--and in Caleb's. There's Aura Jefferson, the victim's sister, a nurse struggling with the loss of her brother; Aura's patient Cecil Porter, a paraplegic whose own dreams of playing pro basketball were shattered fifty years ago; Cecil's brother, the entrepreneur and political manipulator "Big" Ben Porter; and Ben's wife, Becca, who discovers a link between the young Caleb and her own traumatic past.

As Billy's trial approaches, these five are forced to confront their deepest disappointments, hopes, and fears. And when tragedy strikes again, their lives are forever entwined.